This is my hello yarn tote, fully dry and ready for use. I have another photo of it pre-felting, but I forgot to include anything that would provide scale, so there's not much point in posting it. The bag felted pretty well, considering I did it in a mini-washer and not a real washing machine. It took me about 4 15 minute cycles in hot water (washed a lot of whites that day!) as well as 2 shorter cycles in cooler water with a pair of jeans tossed in for friction. This didn't seem to work as well as it is supposed to, mostly because the mini washed doesn't spin the clothes with as much force as is necessary - the hot water seemed to be the real key, but I didn't want to shrink my jeans or fade them out, so I resisted putting them in the really hot cycles.Overall, I think it turned out pretty well, although the fuzzy nature of the material makes it look like more of a winter-use bag. Its kind of hard to accessorise with wool when its still 27 degrees outside!
In other crafty news, I finally made the curtains for our bedroom window. Imagine this image with the door and the long window painted the same colour as the walls - we haven't managed to finish that part, because the windows have thin sheets of plastic stuck over them as insulation, and for some reason we hesitated about taking it off right away, with the result that we painted the whole apartment, except for these doors (the long window beside the door opens too - its one big screened-in window). The previous tenant had ugly, dark red curtains on the windows which blocked out too much light, so I just had to replace them. That, and the fact that they were bleached out on one side and had spider's nests stuck inbetween the gathers. EEEEWWWW! ( I really hate spiders, in case you didn't know that already).
In the midst of all this craftiness, I've been following the developments of the hurricane Katrina disaster - much like most people these days. I was playing with Google Earth today, and they've managed to put up a few layers showing the recent destruction (you can also view some of the images without installing the program). As someone who's never been to New Orleans, I didn't really understand the whole canal/levy thing, but when you see the sattelite views its easy to see why the whole place is underwater. I can't imagine they will be able to drain it out.
What really kills me about this disaster is the lack of humanity displayed by all those idiots who are looting the city. With all the people that still need rescuing, the last thing officials need to be doing is running around after a bunch of pathetic looters! I saw a news clip of an American reporter asking a looter why he was doing this, and didn't he thing it was wrong? The guy's answer blew me away - effectivly, he said that if the cops weren't bothering to stop him, then how could it be wrong?!! It reminded me of that whole invisible man/invisibility cloak concept - if you knew that you could do anything you wanted without getting caught, would you still obey society's laws and rules? Its kind of a test of your overall moral fibre, I guess, since it questions your motivation for behaving a certain way. Laws, karma, gods who smite you, a fear of going to hell - which one of these motiviates your good behaviour? In my ideal world, we'd all behave well for the sake of a better world, but, as the New Orleans looter has shown us, not everyone shares this same belief. Guess that's why they call it 'ideal', eh?
(wow, loooong post today - hope this makes up for my recent lack of posting!)
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